The use of renewable resources as an energy source in lieu of, for example, fossil fuels to provide an energy source is a use that is important to many modern economies. These renewable resources include solar power, wind power, and wave power just to name a few. A renewable energy resource that is currently in high demand is ethanol. Most U.S. ethanol plants use corn as the feedstock. While most economists and scientists agree that ethanol is a viable fuel alternative, ethanol derived from corn is not a preferred solution for a number of reasons such as the limited availability of corn and the need to use corn as food for humans and animals. Thus, for ethanol to become a viable option to replace fossil fuels, processes are needed that can produce ethanol from other inputs, specifically biomass.
Biomass is living or recently living biological material that can be used as fuel or processed to create other products. Some examples of biomass include wood chips and grasses. In addition to being a preferred feedstock for ethanol production, cellulosic biomass is also an attractive alternative to corn and other food grains for the stoves/furnaces that are used to generate energy in homes and businesses. Therefore, the production of biomass pellets is another important renewable energy process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,135 (incorporated herein by reference), which issued to Coakley et al., describes a new type of fuel pellet cut directly from logs without grinding or extruding and a method and apparatus for manufacturing such fuel pellets. It does not provide additional alternative processes for making pellets or other products that could be selected from to achieve increased profitability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,381 (incorporated herein by reference), which issued to Fisher, describes a peripheral-drive log lathe having no sliding surfaces susceptible to wear in either the log-pinching apparatus or in the knife assembly. The lathe is used to cut pellets from a log. It also does not provide additional alternative processes for making pellets, or for making other products.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,573 (incorporated herein by reference), which issued to Overman, describes a method and apparatus for forming pellets from wood particulate material: The apparatus comprises one or more parallel aligned, elongated dies formed by first and second aligned and mating continuous belts comprising a plurality of pads linked together. The wood particulate material, containing from 12 to 20% water, is cut, compacted, extruded and autogenously heated in the elongated dies by simultaneously rotating one of the belts counterclockwise and the other belt clockwise at respectively rotational speeds such that the linear speed of one of the belts is greater than the linear speed of the other. It does not provide additional alternative processes for making pellets or other products that could be selected from to achieve increased profitability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,288 (incorporated herein by reference), which issued to Long, describes a pellet-forming apparatus for extruding high moisture materials in a low-pressure extrusion apparatus having an extruding cylinder and a cooperative extruding rotor. It also does not provide additional alternative processes for making pellets, or for making other products.
While the ability to make and use biomass is well known in the art, what is not well known is how to make and use biomass in such a manner that presently existing economic conditions can be taken into account. More to the point, what is needed is a method and apparatus for using economic data such as commodity prices of oil, electricity, and market conditions as a basis for determining whether to process biomass into biomass pellets, or to use the biomass in the production of ethanol, or to produce pellets, ethanol, and other products in some optimum proportion.